Journal

INDIAN SUMMER

It is the time of so called Indian summer. A special season, when everything slowly starts changing. Transforming. And since we are a part of nature, we are in the change as well. Turning everything a bit inwards. Harvesting and preparing for the winter.

I can still remember how my Mom was preparing things for winter and me and my sister sometimes helped her to store things. It was that “golden” time of the year where there was SO MUCH food, weather was still warm, just days were getting shorter. And we, just like the animals in the forest, stored the gifts of nature for the winter to come, just like the animals do that in their fatty fur.

And these warm days of this late summer, you just want to take more and more in, of all the warmth, and maybe you too, just like the grounds, store it for the cold days. And to turn inwards. The other day I was barefoot and even though it was already dark outside, I felt grounds beneath of a tree were still so warm.

Indian summer, the fifth of “four” seasons is for that. For the Earth element. Celebration of the harvest. To store. Feed. And nourish and nurture. Balance for “tomorrow”.

This is also a time of our own earth inside of us. Our nourishing, feeding and digesting. Harvesting what is inside as well. It’s the time of our spleen, stomach, muscles, thoughts (well in today’s world, thoughts just rule any season).

Try to observe yourself.

What are you doing with your teeth when you wake up? Or when you work, when you are stressed or when you are relaxed? Observe your lower jaw – is it tight or relaxed? And your tongue, lips?

And observe how you eat. Do you chew your food until the end, so that with the help of the saliva it’s starts to change into a smoothie in your mouth and just flows naturally down your throat? Or do you chew it quickly, use your teeth just for a smile and let big parts of food flow down in your stomach?

It’s a challenge. I am trying to observe this in the past few days, and it isn’t easy, especially eating slow, chewing everything. I also noticed then when I am stressed or even very energetic, too happy about certain things – I start to chew really fast. Totally forget about the “slow rhythm” at all. It feels like “floating” above the ground. Earth not being grounded.

And then we also see ourselves having meals next to the phone, computer, newspaper, at a meeting, tv,…. and during this our mind is present somewhere else then on our plates, in our foods. Mind is digesting something else, so our body almost starts to forget to chew and digest- THE FOOD (digesting starts with saliva). And digesting our thoughts and food. These two things can’t work together. One always disturbs the other.

Stressful thoughts have an impact on our chewing (lower jaw) – at such times you want to have more crunchy food and to be able to hear it even more in between of your teeth – you just want to chew more and more. That is what bubble gums are for. For your digesting thoughts. Or cigarettes amongs many, when you start “digesting” your thoughts/emotions through your lungs.

And then we start to chew even in sleep, like we want to literally eat the thing that (how ironically) eats us in the mind.

All of this – overthinking, which is digesting your thoughts on and on and on,… can be seen on our teeth, lower jaw, vocals, shoulders, neck, stomach, spleen, muscles, in our moods,… everything keeps on “grinding”, inside out, so that we could digest our emotions. And then when we overthink – our inner tissue starts to work too much. Even our mind starts to become a bit more foggy.

It starts to become an endless circle, we keep on doing this without the awareness, letting the big, unchewed bites just drop down into the stomach. No wonder we cannot think when we eat something really heavy. It take a lot more effort and energy of our digestive organs to pass all of these big bites through. We all know what happens with the food that we leave outside for far too long. That is what I imagine starts happening in our bodies as well – if it gets stuck in there for a bit longer, it starts to poison us. From the inside. And then we have overload of digesting. Emotions and food,… and of course that this through times can lead to a problem with a certain digestive organ.

One time I’ve heard that when you eat you are really opened. And finally now after such a long time, I think that is actually true. Because besides food and water we (at the meal) start to digest everything that goes into us what we are doing at that very moment in our thoughts as well. It depends on the cirumstances if these ones are good or not.

When we think too much – we can’t digest properly. When we eat too much, we can’t think properly.

This is a school for me as well. And I’m trying to practice. Slow eating – with lots of chewing and it’s amazing how saliva does its “job” as soon the food enters the mouth.

Try to observe yourself as well and you will see how many signs your body can give. Everything is connected. And it can become a wonderful dialogue if we allow it to happen.

But take your body as a home garden. Nothing can be done fast, everything takes time. With Nurture. Love. And in it’s own time. Slowly. All comes.

To “opening” the space in our jaws, softening our tongue (literally and metaphorially – our communication), to relax our digestion (mental and physical) so that nutrients and thoughts can nurture us, not “torture”.